THE BIG DEBATE BURSTS BACK - WITH REDI TLHABI

Friday, April 26, 2013

They're back together. And they remain unequivocally brilliant: Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs as the co-anchoring, duotelly-terrific pair of NewsNight, the flagship daily newscast on the eNCA (DStv 403).

Viewers and non-TV news technically minded people won't really always realise what they're actually watching, but Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti co-anchoring NewsNight together elevates this newscast, and the eNCA, and themselves, to South African television's premiere must-watch television news expression.

With both together and on a roll, NewsNight is unstoppable - an audio-visual tour-de-force juggernaut, filled with gravitas yet infused with warm chemistry which you simply cannot manufacture.

These people clearly like each other and look out for each other, they're news pro's and together they unlock the day's news, do interviews, watch each others' back, overlap, supplement, support and create a TV news experience on South African television like simply no other.

The closest that South African television ever came to what the NewsNight television gestalt delivers to viewers every night that Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs are on together, is what Derek Watts and Ruda Landman on Carte Blanche on M-Net did for years. (But only once a week on Sunday nights, until Ruda Landman left.)

Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Magg's on-screen tele-nalities, their on-screen aura together, create a transformative television experience. And it's once they manage to get right over and over and over again.

NewsNight with Iman Rappetti and Jeremy Maggs is the day's news and actuality of record - but with a warm beat enveloping and shaping the very delivery of that hard news, and done by incredibly informed voices. It also live. Which means you only get once chance.

Yet they hardly ever get anything wrong, or when there is an issue, don't swoop in instantly and make lemon juice out of a TV boo-boo lemon. You simply don't get better news television than that.

Part of the secret is making it look so easy. And just like morning television shows play on the fake or perceived real premise of being a family, primetime news is all about serious delivery (and if you can pull it off, humanitas).NewsNight on the eNCA with these co-anchors have both in abundance and the newscast simply shines when both these news anchors together, become the co-joined conduit through which South African television viewers watch their day's most important news events.

NewsNight when Jeremy Maggs and Iman Rappetti sit next to each other, becomes a definitive, have-to-watch news broadcast, where the authenticity of the co-anchors, their deft skill being in front of the camera and listening to the control room and interviewing a news maker all comes together, perfectly.

It really is a little miracle to watch, and watch again, and watch again. And it happens without fail when these two move into their positions behind the gleaming news desk at eNCA headquarters in Hyde Park - a template for all the others to try and follow.

About Me

is an independent TV critic, writer and journalist in South Africa as well as a pop culture and media expert.
He writes breaking news about TV for daily and weekly leading publications in the country and authors trend and analysis pieces about the TV business.In addition he writes regular weekly and monthly TV columns. He has and continues to write extensively about TV - chronicling what's on it and happening behind the scenes.